We study a dynamic game in which all players initially possess the same information and coordinate on a high level of activity. Eventually, players with a long string of bad experiences become inactive. This prospect can cause a coordination avalanche in which all activity in the population stops. Coordination avalanches are part of Pareto-efficient equilibria; they can occur at any point in the game; their occurrence does not depend on the true state of nature; and allowing players to exchange information may merely hasten their onset. We present applications to search markets, organizational meltdown, and inefficient computer upgrades. (JEL D83)
This paper addresses the problem of partial tax coordination among regional or national sovereign governments in a repeated game setting. We show that partial tax coordination is more likely to prevail if the number of regions in a coalition subgroup is smaller and the number of existing regions in the entire economy is larger. We also show that under linear utility, partial tax coordination is more likely to prevail if the preference for a local public good is stronger. The main driving force for these results is the response of the intensity of tax competition. The increased (decreased) intensity of tax competition makes partial tax coordination more (less) sustainable.
In: Disarmament forum: the new security debate = Forum du désarmement, Heft 2, S. 5-58
ISSN: 1020-7287
Examines recent national and international initiatives for regulation of small arms production and trade, including proposals for an international conference to be convened by the UN sometime in 2001; 5 articles. Text in both English and French. Parallel title: Maîtrise des armes légères: quelle coordination?
PurposeThe main objective of this paper is to investigate information system (IS) supported coordination in knowledge‐intensive business processes. These are business processes that cannot be pre‐defined as their models evolve during process execution from the accumulated experience. Consequently, these processes require a high level of knowledge‐sharing, collection and reuse among all participants in the process.Design/methodology/approachThe paper offers a critical analysis of the main limitations of workflow technology that is widely considered to be the leading process‐oriented, coordination technology. It illustrates why this technology cannot be used to support coordination in knowledge‐intensive business processes. The paper then identifies a number of requirements for possible IS support.FindingsThe main conclusion of this paper is that coordination in knowledge‐intensive processes is, in fact, a knowledge‐intensive process itself, and as such it cannot be fully pre‐defined. Therefore, automation of this process is neither desirable nor possible.Practical implicationsEach IS requirement, proposed in this paper, identifies a number of further research and implementation challenges related to support of knowledge‐intensive business process. They will be of interest to researchers and practitioners both in the fields of business process management as well as knowledge management.Originality/valueIn essence, this paper argues that knowledge‐intensive business processes require fundamentally different coordination support from what is currently available in the area of business process support. This paper shifts the main emphasis from process automation to IS support for situated decision‐making.